Lammy ‘not informed of key details’ when questioned about prisoner release error

David Lammy had not been “accurately informed of key details” about a mistakenly released prisoner when he was asked about the case in the Commons.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has defended the Deputy Prime Minister, after he failed to answer questions about the mistaken release of 24-year-old Algerian national Brahim Kaddour-Cherif from HMP Wandsworth, despite having been informed about the case.

Mr Lammy refused to confirm repeatedly at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions whether any any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since Hadush Kebatu, the now-deported migrant at the heart of protests in Epping, Essex.

The Times reported that Mr Lammy later rejected calls to return to the despatch box to make a statement to MPs on the mistaken release, despite a request from Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

The newspaper said the Deputy PM was advised it would be “career suicide” for him or another minister to return to the Commons.

Mr Lammy is understood to have found out about the error in Kaddour-Cherif’s case overnight, it is understood.

But the MoJ defended his decision not to alert MPs to the case.

A spokesperson said: “The DPM (Deputy Prime Minister) was asked questions about the release of an asylum seeker. As was confirmed after PMQs by the Home Office, the individual was not an asylum seeker.

“The DPM waited until after PMQs and further facts had emerged before making a statement.”

Kaddour-Cherif is not an asylum seeker, it is understood, but he is in the initial stages of being deported for overstaying his visa.

The MoJ also blamed the blunder on the crisis facing the prisons system.

The spokesman said: “The crisis in the prison system this Government inherited is such that basic information about individual cases can take unacceptably long to reach ministers.

“On entering the House, facts were still emerging about the case and the DPM had not been accurately informed of key details including the offender’s immigration status.

“No media story about the individual case was yet in the public domain and it was and remains subject to a live police investigation.”

Kaddour-Cherif is serving a sentence at the south-west London jail for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously also been convicted for indecent exposure.

He was freed from the prison, which was put into special measures last year, on October 29, but the mistake was only reported to the Metropolitan Police on Tuesday, the force said.

Meanwhile, Surrey Police are hunting another inmate, Billy Smith, 35, who was also accidentally released from HMP Wandsworth on Monday, who has links to the Woking area.

He was sentenced to 45 months for multiple fraud offences on the day he was accidentally freed.

A string of influential figures in the justice system have warned that the crisis in prisons has made errors more likely.

The latest is Andy Slaughter, the Labour chairman of the Commons justice committee.

On Wednesday evening, he said events like the mistaken release “speak to a wider justice system at breaking point”.

He added: “While the day-to-day running of prison security and public safety are paramount, the current spate of releases in error will be repeated until the underlying failures are addressed.”